Sean Hannity's Tea Party broadcast abruptly cancelled

Sean Hannity's planned Tea Party show from the University of Cincinnati Thursday night was a bust. Fox News executives abruptly cancelled the show when they learned the Tea Party organizers were selling tickets to the taping.

Hannity and the Tea Party were essentially involved in a co-production and when executives discovered they were selling tickets (that increased in cost based on proximity to the anchor) they knew the group has crossed the propriety line.

The conservative author and host was ordered back to New York Thursday afternoon by his bosses to do his show in-studio. The reaction of the Tea Party hosts to the sudden about face is not yet known.

'Fox News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party organizers to use Sean Hannity’s television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event,' Bill Shine, executive vice president of programming for Fox News, said in a statement to the press on Sunday. 'When senior executives in New York were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight’s show.'

Hannity had also scheduled a book signing at the cancelled Tea Party event, but both that and the show were pulled at the last moment.